The Black Death (Sutton Illustrated History Paperbacks) (Paperback)

His research is prodigious and local to the areas discussed and occasionally interspersed with literature from the age, some of which is extraordinarily moving. The information gleaned from his research is fairly presented; where a margin for error is possible, it is noted with the relevant explanation.

The social and economic consequences of The Great Plague are still a matter of dispute amongst historians. Ziegler tackles this thorny discussion. Firstly the roots of the Peasant's Revolt of 1381 are given an airing, then the conclusions drawn from the highly elective statistics drawn from different parts of the country from various historians. For the reader, this is vexatious, when it is clear to anyone else not engaged in "scoring points" local outcomes were the result of "horses for courses". The single common factor is scarcity of labour raising wages to an unprecedented degree and enabling a mobility of labour hitherto unavailable in a quasi-feudal society. More striking for this reader perhaps, is the fact given the circumstances, it took nearly 600 years for the demands of the Peasants' Revolt to be met in full.

As to whether the plagues of 1348 and 1361 and subsequent outbreaks 1368-9, 1371, 1375, 1390 and 1405 created a watershed in British history, is surely a superfluous question by any historian, but one apparently constantly raised. From a population believed to be between 3.7 and 4.6 million of which it's estimated up to 50%, 20-30% of those in the first two plagues died, it would be a miracle if life, political or otherwise, remained the same. Given those remaining were walking, talking human beings, they doubtless had other pressing concerns, enhanced or exacerbated by the dearth of population. Politics never die with people.

As Ziegler avers the vacuum left in education provided scope for new ideas and doctrines; written vernacular English was one eventual outcome; the legal redistribution of land was a major issue; old skills were forever lost and new ones invented.

The hierarchy of the established church did not emerge with much credit. Taking care of themselves and their possessions during the crisis did not endear them to the population at large. Post plague, being the major landowners, attempting to reimpose pre-plague wages and feudal conditions more strictly than any other freeholders probably laid the first paving slabs on the path to majority acceptance of Henry VIII's Reformation.

In England, anti-clericalism manifested itself in Wyclif and Lollardy. A crisis of faith with social repercussions, comparisons of which are drawn with the social climate after the Great War of 1914-18. There is obviously a case to be made for the fact that whilst times and circumstances change, people don't.

Philip Ziegler has written a seminal, thought provoking work and at the same time treated his fellow historians equitably and courteously. A real achievement.